We were alerted to the fact that Niall Farrell was in the field just before dinner. We were adding him to the chip counts when dinner was announced and we looked up to see him stacking more chips. Upon investigation, we saw this tweet:
Farrell placed 29th in this event (#41) last year and with only 67 players remaining, he is in good position to better his result. With nine WSOP cashes, two of them from this year, and over $1,000,000 in lifetime cashes Farrell will be one to watch.
On one of the first hands back from dinner, we lost Ognjen Sekularac. James Thompson and Sekularac got in a raising war that saw Sekularac commit the rest of his chips preflop with . He was up against the of Thompson, who shot out to the lead when the flop came . Sekularac was now in desperate need of help, and the on the turn gave him an inside straight draw. However, the on the river didn't help him out, and Thompson collected the bounty to up his stack to 320,000.
Ian Simpson raised it up to 8,500, and action folded to Michael Rocco, who three bet it to 26,500. It got back around to Simpson, and after he confirmed the bet, he announced all in for about 200,000. Rocco quickly mucked, and Simpson took down the pot without a showdown.
Jason Mercier was short coming back from dinner, so we've kept one eye on him since we've gotten back hoping to catch either his double up or bustout. Well while we were typing up hands over at our desk, we saw Mercier tweet that he had just secured a double up.
The buzz inside the walls of the Rio extends beyond just the tournaments on the 2013 World Series of Poker schedule. Online poker in Nevada is a very, very hot topic right now, and WSOP.com is making a lot of noise.
While the site has yet to launch, you can head to the Lambada Room of the Rio or look for one of the beautiful and friendly WSOP.com ladies walking the hallways to sign up for a free, personal WSOP.com online poker account. This is a great way to get a jump on the site's registration, and plenty of people have already taken this opportunity.
What's more is that the WSOP will be hosting daily raffles for everyone that has taken the time to register for WSOP.com at the Rio. What can you win? Plenty of fantastic prizes including 36 WSOP seats!
Players 21 years of age and older who sign up for a WSOP.com account will automatically be entered into the “36-Seat Giveaway” where a randomly-selected winner will win a seat into the next day’s first WSOP gold bracelet event. One of the events eligible in this promotion is the $111,111 One Drop High Roller No-Limit Hold’em tournament that is expected to feature a $10,000,000 prize pool and allow you to play poker with the biggest names in the game. In total, $182,333 in WSOP seats, including a seat to the WSOP Main Event, are being given away during this one-of-a-kind WSOP.com promotion.
In addition to the 36-Seat Giveaway, a “Hot Seat” promotion will allow any player who signs up for a WSOP.com online account and wears their WSOP.com patch on their chest at the table while playing an event to be randomly selected to receive 500 bonus dollars deposited directly into their WSOP.com online account once the site has received all regulatory approvals and launches.
With 62 WSOP gold bracelet events and three winners promised for the Main Event, this promotion includes $32,000 worth of value to those participating.
We came to the table just as the was completing the board. Barry Shulman was all in with against his opponent's . The river ten completed the straight for Shulman's opponent and after the chips were counted, Shulman was left with just one 500 chip.
As the antes were 500, Shulman was all in for just the antes. There was a raise to 8,000 from middle position and everyone folded to the raiser. When the hands were turned over Shulman was in good shape with against his opponent's . The board came giving Shulman two pair and 4,500 in chips.
Shulman folded the next hand and then went all in from the cutoff on the hand following. The small blind completed and the big blind checked his option. The blinds checked down the board and Shulman won with ten high bringing him to 11,500. Unfortunately, the old saying "chip and chair" would only go so far, as Shulman was eliminated two hands later.
We only walked up to towards the end of the hand, but we saw that Zohair Karim and Ismael Bojang were heads up on a completed board of . There was about 65,000 in the middle, and Karim had already shoved all in, having Bojang covered. The bet was effectively for 85,000, as that was how much Bojang had left. Bojang spent about 90 seconds in the tank while we were there, before making what looked like a frustrated fold.
Karim took down the hand, upping his stack to 260,000 in the process.
It's been quite a return from dinner for Jason Mercier, who earlier secured a double up, as he has recently knocked out a player to get up to almost 150,000. Action started with Mercier raising to 8,000, and the player in the big blind called. The flop came down rainbow, and the big blind open shoved all in for around 50,000. Mercier made the call, and saw that his was well out in front of the of his opponent. Mericer's hand held, and after coming back from dinner with just 40,000, he is now up to 148,000.
Pedro Rios open shoved all in for his last 39,000 in middle position, and Jacob Schindler made the call a few spots over. Everyone else folded, and Rios saw that he was in great shape for a double.
Rios:
Schindler:
The flop came down , and Rios remained out in front,. The on the turn gave Schindler an inside straight draw, but Rios was able to survive, with the coming on the river. Rios jumped up to 85,000, while Schindler drops to 72,000.